


When We Meet at the End of the Galaxy

by Lyrishadow



Category: Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-01
Updated: 2017-05-01
Packaged: 2018-10-26 09:08:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10783785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lyrishadow/pseuds/Lyrishadow
Summary: Ord Mantell is a planet with a lot of strife, and our intrepid captain Ly'zia is about to remember why she didn't like it at all.





	When We Meet at the End of the Galaxy

**Author's Note:**

> I have high hopes that they will bring Coros back to me. 
> 
> I also have high hopes that Ly'zia (Zia) and Corso will be a thing and their life/journey together will find all kinds of things to feed my writing.

 

Back to Old Mantel, to where she was born and raised. Ly'zia had spent time enough away that her accent was not even close to recognizable, and none of her family were left either. It had been a chapter she had hoped to leave behind. She had been kidnapped at fourteen by some imperial or other (never got their name) to be taken as a slave, she got herself out of that mess but she found herself on some backwater planet fortunately one of her uncle's  was a smuggler so when she contacted him, he came; she hitched a ride and stayed on as crew. Now  she inherited her  freighter and made her skills sharp on short supply runs. As much as she hated Ord Mantel and in reality to come back here had been an act of desperation, the money was too good to turn down. 

 She was Cathar, so the chances of running into her old gang was slim - they had caused enough trouble back in the day, and she hoped to deliver her stuff and be out of there before anyone else showed up who might remember her.

So she dodged the incoming fire - separatists, she remembered the government being corrupt as snakes, but the people had obviously had enough now or were being edged on by another party. Ly''zia just hoped she wouldn't get caught having to stay here too long. 

 

She landed at a hangar which was safely away from where the main fighting seemed to be, she hoped the blasters would be off her hands and she could leave soon. There was one man in the dock, which surprised her usually there was a small party to unload the cargo. She shrugged and shouldered her bag, she always carried a change of clothes and some food because she had been stuck before this and was not keen on getting stuck again.

"I'm suprised you made it through the Separatist shooting gallery Captain." His thinly veiled disgust at her race pegged him as someone she didn't like;  the man identified himself as Skavak and had a noticeable tattoo on his face, and looked like he could use a decent meal once in a while. Another man came running in calling Skavak and trying to alert him to trouble.

"Got a name?" Ly'zia asked as the man looked at her, not just glanced like so many do but really looked, curious and distractedly. She knew cute when she saw it, and he was definitely easy on her eyes.

"Ah what.. oh... Corso." he managed to pull his mind back from where ever it had wandered to warn them about Separatists. His accent told her he was definitely from Ord.

"It's nothin a few well placed blaster bolts won't fix." She said flatly as they outlined what she guessed many would assume to be odds against success."I will handle them."

She did just that, taking down their com jammers as well. She turned to leave the building and head back to the hangar when Corso called her com.

"Captain you there?"

"I'm a little... sure what?" she considered telling him she was busy but then remembered his fluster when she arrived and decided to play nice.

"We are under attack by separatists.. they are storming the hangar..." The hangar, where her ship was.

"Hang on Corso, I am on my way." Racing off  she thought, here goes the heroics again. How was she always racing off to save men , when was someone gonna come save her? 

 

She knew that if she pretended to be the confident, cocky pilot people would assume she was and leave her alone, besides, her favorite line was "it aint nothing that a blaster wont fix." There was profit in most things, and the rest she decided, was her helping people who were stuck like she had been. She didn't know if the people here  would value that kind of help but it was worth a try. Her mind set to make the most of it she headed back towards the hangar - and her ship.

 

The hangar was over-run with separatists and so she fought them off, looking around she found Corso slumped near a crate, with a sizable welt on the back of his head.

"Thanks." He said as she gave him a hand up "Feel like a gundark used my skull for target practice."

A familiar sound echoed in the now empty warehouse.

"My ship!" Ly'zia was horrified to see her ship taking off  without her, she threw her  hands in the air in  what she later reflected on as a reflex to try and pull the ship back - because that would work right? 

"Skarvak was working with separatists all along, he stole the guns too." Corso checked his side arm "Torchy... he took torchy.."

"That thief !" she could accept that someone would be attached to their weapons but that was her ship, her life, and she was not going to let him get away with it."We have to get everything back!"

Corso looked at the ground sighing "Sorry about your ship Captain, I know a gun aint much in comparison."

"It's alright Corso, I understand." She paused trying to figure out the options they had, someone had to know what Skavak was up to.

"Head up to Fort Garnik, my boss is Vidu and he will have some ideas of what to do about this." Corso  offered.

"I don't really do military forts." Ly'zia in truth didn't do Fort Garnik, but how to explain to the happy soul in front of her that she hated this place was not in her capabilities.

"It's ok, Vidu has a special deal going with them. At least he will have some ideas in what to do."

So she headed to Fort Garnik, it was familiar enough that she relaxed a little as she walked, her bag hefted over her shoulder and beret that she always wore pulled lower than normal. 

Vidu turned out to be a generously sized man who had done well out of the skirmish, but the theft of the cargo had him in jitters. The guns apparently belonging to notorious gangster Rogan the Butcher - no wonder the pay off had been so good.

"Well, Corso called and said you were going to be here, pull up a chair Captain."

She spent the next two hours talking over their options and ideas, it had started to get dark outside when Corso joined them.

"Have you got a place to stay Captain?" He asked as he stretched his legs out under the table. 

"No was gonna see if the cantina had rooms."

"No need." Vida shrugged "There us plenty of space here Captain."

"Thanks." She agreed more so she was closer to the action than away from it in case news came through at an odd time.  "Well I might head to the cantina for a drink, need one after today."

She nodded to the two men and walked to the cantina which really was not far away from Vidu's warehouse.

 

Some things never change, and that was true of the cantina in Fort Garnik, it was still full of a night, with a hint of military obedience and low hum of talking. For Ly'zia that was both good and bad - she could lose herself in this place for a few minutes but the risk of being recognized rose quite high but for once she didn't care. She also pretended to not notice that Corso followed her at a discreet distance - it made her wonder if Vidu was keeping tabs on her or if either of them were worried about her reputation preceding her.

"Ly'zia in the flesh..." Gaz one of the people she had hoped to avoid sauntered over to her; well as much as you can when you are drunk.

"You still owe me a round of sabacc" he leered which did him no credit whatsoever. She had worked for him once, and decided he was such an idiot she would not work for him again. She had cleared the table at a sabacc game and gotten out of the contract she was under that way.

"Sorry Gaz, I'm not here for you." she pushed past the large man and sat at the bar. The bar tender turned and then frowned at her.

"Ly'zia, any relation of Ly'vix?"  she nodded shortly, her brother had been here obviously, they looked similar and had spent a lot of time together as kits but as adults they were night and day - Ly'zia being the night. 

"Yeah, he's my brother - why you seen him?"

"You hadn't heard then?"

"Heard what?" a general silence fell around the bar then, and she took a large swig of her drink "I am not going to like this am I?"

"He was killed in a separatist ambush a week ago - not sure why they sent him back here, I guess though you oughta stop by headquarters and get his stuff." 

"He was killed?" she drank the rest of her whiskey and stared at the counter. Her parents had died in a freak weather event, her sister was a Jedi - taken at age 4 to train - and her only brother was now dead, she had not been in touch with any of her family for ages. 

"Yeah sorry kid." The guy behind the bar sounded genuine "He was a decent sort too. Here, one on the house in memory." He gave her another whiskey which she drank without pausing.

"Thanks. I ... gotta go." Ly'zia felt like all the air had been kicked out of her, and she tried to get her head around what she just heard, she regretted not contacting Ly'vix after she inherited her freighter, for not being a better person, for not being..... she stopped and lent against the wall in the alley near Vidu's warehouse trying to calm her grief and get her breathing under control. The cool night air after the humidity of the day didn't take away the sting of hearing her brothers death from the bar keeper, but at least she knew, and she could move on. There really was no-one left on Ord Mantel, and no family to come home to.

 

It turned out the warehouse had a small bunk room, consisting of one bunk, which Corso had taken over as his own space, still he insisted that he was fine sleeping on the floor, and she could have the bed. She had slept in worse places when she first escaped the Imperials but she found she had been tired anyhow, climbed onto the bed to go to sleep as Corso set up a mat on the floor accross the doorway - so anyone trying to come into the room would trip over him first. It reminded Ly'zia of some story she had read where the handsome man lays down his life to save the woman, of course men like that didn't exist and she doubted she would sleep much anyhow.

 

It was after midnight when she got back from the bar, Corso had followed her a little to make sure she was okay going there, he didn't trust the workers in the warehouse that much to keep someone safe, and he had found that the Cathar woman had taken his breath away.

Vidu had noticed and teased him about how much he was staring at her. Corso shrugged, there had only been one other woman who had held his attention, and that was an ancient history story now. He gave up his bed, and placed a mat across the entrance to the room to make sure no-one bothered the Captain while she slept. He noticed she kept her weapon with her at all times, and something told him there was a story there but he didn't know her enough to pry yet. Once they were resting for the night Corso lay awake a while listening to the even snores coming from the Cathar, he suppressed a laugh her snore was somewhere between cute and snorting.

 

The next day they gathered intel from some of Vidu's sources, a guy in one of the villages got them in the back door of a base, and that got them access to a computer system. Ly'zia went and gathered files and data. It was a long slog there and back with no wheels - she was used to having her speeder that was, ironically, still on her ship. At least she hoped that idiot Skavak had not dug around all her belongings. She didn't have much but what she did have was important to her. At the end of the day she headed to the cantina again, this time trying to sit further away so she didn't have to speak to the guy  behind the bar. Ly'zia never got drunk alone, getting drunk on your own as a female, generally meant that you ended up with a partner you didn't want, doing things you would rather not, so she kept her drink amount to a minimum and simply sipped it a long time, as well as the fact it took more than a few drinks to get her drunk.  That was most nights, but tonight with the warehouse practically next door, and a whole lot more stress than she wanted to deal with - death, theft and divorce she recalled reading the three great tragedies in life. Good thing she had only to deal with two of them she couldn't imagine getting married let alone divorced.  She drank just a little too much.

Staggering back to where she was sleeping she greeted a shocked Corso with a kiss on the cheek.

"Ello Corso.." her slurring had a definite accent, something akin to an Ord Mantel one, and that confused Corso all the more. Still she managed to get into bed without help and so he turned in for the night.

 

A little after three am- at least thats what the data pad next to him said, Corso was woken to a sound he couldn't identify.  A soft tapping like something against the wall, followed by a muffled wail ad sniffling. Finally fully awake he figured it was coming from the Captain - though he didn't know what it was exactly still, but his instincts told him to go check on her. 

"Captain?" he hissed to her in the dark walking into the bed and nearly falling over, he sat down on the edge and rubbed his shin. "Captain?" He tried again this time softer as his eyes had adjusted to the dark, and he could make out the captain sitting in a ball in the corner, shaking and sobbing.

"S...ss...sorry." she said shakily.

"No, it's ok, come on... I am a good listener if you want to talk." Corso did his best to sound soothing, he didn't know what had gotten her worked up. She moved a little, to look at him.

"You dont have to be nice to me..." she shuddered again, obviously upset.

"You're right  Captain I don't but I am because I like you." he said lifting a hand and gently rubbing her shoulder. "I'd say it will be okay but I don't know what it is..." 

"My ship is gone." She sniffed "and I found out yesterday my brother died on this stupid planet.."

"I'm sorry, that's a lot of bad thing happening,." he rubbed her shoulder a little more gently as she wiped her hand across her eyes. 

"Sorry Corso, I'm a lil drunk as well." she opened her eyes and sniffled "that is always a bad thing for me - i get all teary and ...." she trailed off as she took stock of the man in front of her, who was in fact not wearing a shirt. The pause was long enough, significant enough that Corso became aware of where she was looking.

"Ah Captain?" He managed to say though she could hear the hesitation in his voice, and the slight exhalation as his pulse quickened. Cathar have exceedingly good hearing. 

"Call me Zia." she said quietly, her own pulse spiking just a little. This was a very good looking man.

'Zia... are you okay?"he asked not removing his hand from her shoulder. 

She sighed as she pulled her gaze away; the truth? She was far from okay.

"No, but it won't change. I.."she stared at her hands. 

 

Corso felt something with this woman, and it was three in the morning, and he had forgotten to grab a shirt when he got up; all he wanted to do was take her in his arms and hold her.  If he did that, she might misunderstand - not that he would mind if she did misunderstand the action - but it was all too much for his brain. He was not ready tho when she took his hand and moved underneath his arm close to his side.

"If... would you mind.." she exhaled "I could use a hug. A friend. A companion." 

He nodded and decided he would let it be whatever it was, he hoped he would have plenty of time to figure out why she was so interesting. He slid further back onto the bed and leaned against the wall, allowing the Cathar woman to cuddle next to him, his arm around her.

"We were not close." she said suddenly "but we were once, I was born on Ord Mantelm was taken when i was a kit escaped that scarp to end up in a hell of a lot more with my Uncle - it was his freighter, this was my first long haul run on my own." she sighed "but i screwed that up too."

"Aw now I don't think you screwed up; i worked with Skavak for months and never thought.." Corso sighed and rubbed his head with his other hand.

"He is really going to pay. That ship is my life... and to take your blaster... thats just low." she growled a little and Corso found himself rubbing her shoulder gently.  "Sorry, if that was the only problem I had... " she shook her head.

"You got any other family?" Corso asked quietly.

"Not really, a sister someplace, she's a Jedi though and they don't exactly keep family connections. My folks were killed in a rock slide years ago now, before I was taken. My brother joined the Republic Military - and told me to stay safely away." she sighed, she had hated him for that, his need to protect her from what he imagined life would be for a criminal near a Republic base.

"Not your fault." Corso said defensively  "And he was probably tryin to figure out how to help look after you - keeping you out of trouble was the best he could do."

"Thanks Corso, you help make things better" she said resting her head on his shoulder.

"I should get back to..." he gestured to his bed by the door.

"Stay?" the question surprised Zia as much as it surprised Corso.

"I ah it's not.. I.." she could feel his pulse jump again and she knew she felt that way too - was it a good idea to tempt fate? As it was she had been drinking so she had less of her usual walls up that protected her from making those kind of mistakes smiled up at him and added:

"I could use the company, no pressure though you don't have to stay." she paused "I mean you are just sleeping on the other side of the room and I.. "

"Here... I will be right here." Corso gestured to the bed "But lemme get more comfortable."

Corso carefully laid down on the bed next to the wall, it wasn't a huge bed, but there was enough room for the small Cathar and him without being too pinched. 

Zia lay down grateful to Corso for staying, and for not suggesting she wanted anything but company, that awareness that someone else was there., she rolled over so she could see him leaning up she quickly kissed him grinned and snuggled back down into the bed to sleep.

 

Corso woke up with a weight on his chest he hadn't expected, during the night the Captain had rolled over and put her head down on his bare chest. He didn't move, not wanting to wake her up just yet. He took the opportunity to really look at her. He had not been this close to a Cathar before, and she was fascinating  The fur on her head was soft against his skin, and her soft snores were gentle snorts of air . He watched her mouth a moment then remembered that she had kissed him, a quick thank you kind of kiss but a kiss on the mouth just the same. He then realised he wanted every opportunity for her to keep doing that, he decided to follow her if they got her ship back soon, maybe she would hire him on?


End file.
